THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS

Official Proclamations.

ACTING on the advice of General Joffre, on September 3, 1914, President Poincare and his Ministers vacated Paris and established the French seat ,of government at Bordeaux. In the first of the accompanying documents, General Gallieni briefly informs the army and inhabitants of Paris that, as commandant of the French capital, he will resolutely defend it.

Following his proclamation is that of the French Government, signed by all the civil and military authorities, including Gallieni, and addressed to the "People of France." Both then and later Gallieni achieved merited fame as one of the ablest and most courageous defenders of France. A not over-sympathetic English eye-witness of the official evacuation does not believe that "any human society in time of peril could display in a higher degree than Paris was doing the virtues of calmness, courage, loyalty and endurance."

THE members of the Government of the Republic have left Paris to give a fresh impulse to national defense.

I have been intrusted with the task of defending Paris against the invader.

That task I will fulfill to the end. GALLIENI, Commandant of the Army of Paris.

PEOPLE OF FRANCE! For several weeks relentless battles have engaged our heroic troops and the army of the enemy. The valor of our soldiers has won for them, at several points, marked advantages ; but in the north the pressure of the German forces has compelled us to fall back.

This situation has compelled the President of the Republic and the Government to take a painful decision.

In order to watch over the national welfare, it is the duty of the public powers to remove themselves temporarily from the city of Paris.

Under the command of an eminent Chief, a French army, full of courage and zeal, will defend the capital and its patriotic population against the invader.

But the war must be carried on at the same time on the rest of its territory.

Without peace or truce, without cessation or faltering, the struggle for the honor of the nation and the reparation of violated rights must continue.

None of our armies is impaired. If some of them have sustained very considerable losses, the gaps have immediately been filled up from the reserves, and the appeal for recruits assures us of new reserves in men and energy tomorrow.

Endure and fight! Such must be the motto of the Allied British, Russian, Belgian and French armies.

Endure and fight, while at sea the British aid us, cutting the communication of our enemy with the world.

Endure and fight, while the Russians continue to advance to strike the decisive blow at the heart of the German Empire.

It is the duty of the Government of the Republic to direct this stubborn resistance.

Everywhere Frenchmen will rise for their independence ; but, to insure the utmost spirit and efficacy in the formidable fight, it is indispensable that the Government shall remain free to act.

At the request of the military authorities, the Government is therefore temporarily transferring its headquarters to a place where it can remain in constant touch with the whole country.

It requests members of Parliament not to remain away from it, in order that they may form, with their colleagues, a bond of national unity.

The Government leaves Paris only after having assured the defense of the city and of the entrenched camp by every means in its power.

It knows that it does not need to recommend to the admirable population of Paris that calm, resolution, and coolness which it is showing every day, and which is on a level with its highest traditions.

People of France, let us all be worthy of these tragic circumstances. We shall gain the final victory; we shall gain it by unflagging will, endurance, and tenacity.

A nation which refuses to perish, and which, in order to live, does not flinch either from suffering or sacrifice, is sure of victory.

HOW THE "TAXICAB ARMY" SAVED PARIS

By General Clergerie.

THIS contest, known officially as the Battle of the Ourcq, September 5-8, 1914, was a prelude to the Battle of the Marne that saved France. Its most picturesque incident, as here related, was the sudden launching into the fray of several thousand Paris troops borne to the front in taxicabs. In this feature of the engagement originated the phrase "the taxicab army that saved Paris." Hence is given (this authoritative account by General Clergerie, one of the men who devised it. He was the chief-of-staff of General Gallieni, commander of Paris. Following his account is an interesting review of the engagement by the contemporary French historian, Madelin. In conclusion is given General Joffre's proclamation to Maunoury's heroic army.

FROM August 26, 1914, the German armies had been descending upon Paris by forced marches. On September 1st they were only three days' march from the advanced line of the in-trenched camp, which the garrison were laboring desperately to put into condition for defense. It was necessary to cover with trenches a circuit of 110 miles, install siege guns, assure the coming of supplies for them over narrow-gauge railways, assemble the food and provisions of all kinds necessary for a city of 4,000,000 inhabitants.

But on September 3rd the intelligence service, which was working perfectly, stated, about the middle of the day, that the German columns, after heading straight for Paris, were swerving toward the southeast and seemed to wish to avoid the fortified camp.

General Gallieni and I then had one of those long conferences which denoted grave events : they usually lasted from two to five minutes at most. The fact is that the military Government of Paris did little talking it acted. The conference reached this conclusion: "If they do not come to us, we will go to them with all the force we can muster." Nothing remained but to make the necessary preparations. The first thing to do was not to give the alarm to the enemy. General Maunoury's army immediately received orders to lie low and avoid any engagement that was not absolutely necessary.

In the night of September 3rd, knowing that the enemy would have to leave only a rear guard on one bank of the Ourcq, General Gallieni decided to march against that rear guard, to drive it back with all the weight of the Maunoury army, to cut the enemy's communications, and take full advantage of his hazardous situation. Immediately the following order was addressed to General Maunoury :

"Because of the movement of the German armies, which seem to be slipping in before our front to the southeast, I intend to send your army to attack them in the flank, that is to say, in an easterly direction. I will indicate your line of march as soon as I learn that of the British army. But make your arrangements now so that your troops shall be ready to march this afternoon and to begin a general movement east of the intrenched camp tomorrow."

General Joffre gave permission to attack and announced that he would himself take the offensive on the 6th. On the 5th, at noon, the army from Paris fired the first shot ; the battle of the Ourcq, a preface to the Marne, had begun.

General von der Marwitz, cavalry commander of the German First Army, made intemperate use of the wireless telegraph and did not even take the trouble to put into cipher his dispatches, of which the Eiffel Tower made a careful collection. In the evening of September 9th, an officer of the intelligence corps brought me a dispatch from this same Marwitz couched in something like these terms : "Tell me exactly where you are and what you are doing. Hurry up, because XXX.-

The officer was greatly embarrassed to interpret those three Xs. Adopting the language of the poilu, I said to him : "Translate it, 'I am going to bolt.' " True enough, next day we found on the site of the German batteries, which had been precipitately evacuated, stacks of munitions ; while by the roadside we came upon motors abandoned for the slightest breakdown, and near Betz almost the entire outfit of a field bakery, with a great store of flour and dough half-kneaded. Paris and France were saved. Von Kluck could not get over his astonishment. He has tried to explain it by saying he was unlucky, for out of a hundred Governors not one would have acted as Gallieni did, throwing his whole available force nearly forty miles from his stronghold.